Over the last few weeks, HolidayIQ has introduced a geo-fencing feature which alerts users while travelling if there are any interesting tourist sites around themPriyanka Sangani | ET Bureau | September 29, 2016, 16:16 IST

Travel review portal Holiday IQ is using technology in an unusual manner to get more people to create content and post reviews on the site.

Over the last few weeks, the India focused travel review company has introduced a geo-fencing feature on its mobile app which alerts users while travelling if there are any interesting tourist sites around them.

It also pushes a notification reminding them to post a video review of their room about 30 minutes after they check in, resulting in a lot more people posting reviews through the app.

Hari Nair, CEO, HolidayIQ told ET, “We wanted to enhance utility for the app for the traveler and make it easier to research and post reviews. Posting reviews as you travel is a changing paradigm and this is a first for India,” he said.

With geo-fencing, the app recognizes when you’ve moved out of your ‘home’ area and will push a notification onto the screen if you are within a certain range of a tourist site, highlighting the top things you can do there. Of the 2500 sites on the app, geofencing already works for 2000 of them. Early feedback indicates that travelers are happier being able to review a place immediately, rather than wait till the end of the trip, helping them provide more detailed and accurate feedback.

So far, the company has been focused on the Indian market, but from 2017, Nair said that HolidayIQ would start looking at reviewing international destinations from an Indian viewpoint. In the past year, HolidayIQ has been focused on two areas—creating more video content and increasing the bookings made through the site.

“We have integrated with 12-15 companies like Makemytrip and Yatra to facilitate bookings, as well as with offline travel agencies across India who have been verified by us,” said Nair.

As of now, the video option is available only to review hotel rooms but this will soon be rolled out to other segments like shopping, food etc. With four months of launching this feature, there are already about 7000 video reviews available on the portal, said Nair.